That confirmation may have been definitive, but Pace didn't make that declaration until two months into his tenure and that of new head coach John Fox. In between, Pace and Fox got to know Cutler and tried to determine whether they were comfortable with him as the starter. During the vetting, Pace added that despite rumors, they had "zero" interest in trading Cutler and gave doing so no effort.

In reality, he is the NFL's ultimate un-tradeable commodity as overpriced and permanently damaged goods. Cutler is making $15.5 million guaranteed in base salary for 2015, and now that he'll be on their roster well beyond Thursday, he's already guaranteed to get $10 million of the $16 million he's owed in 2016.

You can bet Pace and Fox would have liked a fresh start, but it would have been hard to pursue a deal if nobody wanted to be on the other end. Even though they weren't really all-in on him, they now have to be because he's better than any other short-term option.

So Plan B for the new regime went into effect. It's the opposite of Plan A of their predecessors, Phil Emery and Marc Trestman — which was to coddle Cutler and hope he would finally see the light.

Pace and Fox are forced to do it in a much different way. Instead of being able to treat Cutler like an established, successful veteran and maximizing what's around him, they're going minimalistic.

Pace, the aggressive one of the two, stripped Cutler of his old friend and go-to wide receiver, trading Brandon Marshall to the Jets. Most of Pace's moves in his initial offseason will be tied up in remodeling the defense into a more Monsters of the Midway-like 3-4, and not catering personnel-wise to Cutler.

Fox's job as the conservative one is to bring that defense together on the field and back it up with a running game-centered offense.

The goal? Make Cutler the league's highest-priced caretaker and win despite of him. Fox and the offensive coordinator he brought with him from Denver, Adam Gase, just got to the playoffs with both Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow. Gase, unlike Trestman, will not let Cutler loose.

Along with that rebuilt D, in the short term, they'll focus on the more reliable part of their offense, running back Matt Forte.

Cutler, at 31, has run out of chances to show he can be anything better than what we've seen. His mental makeup will keep taking away from his physical skills.

It didn't take Pace and Fox long to learn that. They may be committed to Cutler, but they would be crazy to trust him.